Technical Field
This application is directed to using per-hop virtual local area network classification to bridge data in a network of connected devices.
Description of the Related Art
Spanning Trees in Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) 802.1Q compliant devices permit a plurality of these devices to be connected in a Local Area Network (LAN) with a loop-free topology. However, this topology can result in suboptimal paths because useful links are left disabled in order to ensure only one path between each pair of devices. Furthermore, the tree topology does not permit load balancing or prioritizing the transmission of certain types of traffic, such as high priority data packets.